Visiting Ventspils, Latvia. Part II - The river mud, storks, and food.

A more amateur post filled with personal things

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So, at the end of my last Ventspils post I asked you to guess what was posing in the photo with me. This is another snap of the same thing. Storks are the most common birds that we spot in the summer. Of course, there are pigeons and gulls but storks take all of the spotlight with their big nests, wonderful appearance and a distinctive difference from every other bird. Also, we have some black storks but they are incredibly rare. I think I have seen only one in all of my life and it was by sheer luck. The bird was beautiful.

You see, a lot of suburban areas in Ventspils are very quiet. And there are a lot of electricity poles. Here, you can catch a lot of birds just as often as you can spot squirrels in the closeby pine forests. That is the amazing thing about the place I come from. There have always been animals around but no farms. Those are away in the smaller neighboring towns or in the countryside, and out of sight from the roads most of the time. In contrast, when I lived in Ireland and took a road trip, I would spot a lot of sheep. In Latvia, however, you mostly see forests and fields while on the road. An occasional cow. It is very similar to Germany in that retrospect. Minus the highways as we only have one in the whole tiny country. Oh, and plus to the many roads with potholes...

These storks were spotted by us on the day that we went to a very popular swimming place by the ''VENTA'' river. The day was hot and the weather sunny, without a cloud in the sky. I know the pictures are a little blurry. They were taken by a friends phone as I had left mine at home before. Also, I cropped the image and it also could be the reason for them pixels mixing. Also, I got you a google map place as you can not find ''Dampeļi'' by searching for the name of the swimming spot online. This is a local gem where you can have a lot of fun so, yes, it is my recommendation for you. There are always some people here but it also guarantees safety in case of a hidden current.

We spent a couple of hours here and my brother made an amazing bridge for a sand castle that we built. I was hugely impressed! Our whole day was spent next to the water as on the same day, we walked to the beach and swam in the sea, too. My reminder here is, don't forget suncream. Also, if you are looking for a nice tan, coconut oil is great at both, protecting your skin and attracting the suns love. There are also changing cabins here and porta-potties. The ground is grassy and supplied with sand in some places. The water is warmer than in the sea and you do not get cold as fast. Also, this is a mostly local place that does not have a supermarket very close by so make sure to stock up on water!

At this point the castle looks like a pile of mud. :D

A friendly advice, do not let water into your defense trench before the castle is ready! It will start destroying the base immediately and you will be faced with a losing battle at all times. My friend made a trench and filled it with water but we had to add tiny rivers to get the water away before it destroyed the castle. Also, we added the defense wave of sand later on so the trench would not fill up with new water. The castle had three levels and, what you could not see is that behind there are stairs leading from level to level.

I would suggest building sandcastles at Dampeļi rather than next to the sea. The reason? There are so many more props around that you can use. And the sand sticks together better here than at the sea beach in Ventspils. Also, we had a friendly family of ducks swimming right next to us which was amazing! They were constantly looking for food around us and diving to get it. Also, ducks are quite popular in our town as we have quite a lot of greenery, parks, and ponds. I have learned through moving that there are not a lot of cities around that have so many birds residing in them freely and close to the human eye. At least not in the quantities that they hang out in Ventspils.

Latvia is small and still features different places and towns. From the very flat sea town of Ventspils that has cow sculptures everywhere and a lot f stuff to do for kids (a lot) to Sigulda that has hilly terrain, more forests, and castles. And the best thing, you could travel from one part of the country to the other in one day. Everything is semi-close and therefore you can see a lot on one holiday. However, if you want to have a lazy holiday, I would suggest giving at least 5 to 7 days to Ventspils. My suggestion is to spend 3 to 5 days in Sigulda and a maximum of a week in the capital as it is more of a usual metropolitan type of a city and does not really surprise you in a new way.

Also, consider everything being cheaper if you are not in the capital. For example, the cinema. In Ventspils, they show around 5 to 7 movies at the same time, for one week. It is not a huge choice but you can make do as usually the most popular films are shown. Also, the ticket prices are great. You spend around 4 euros on the movie and kids up to 12 years go cheaper. You also can buy popcorn+ drink for around 3 euros. I and my brother went for two movies in a row and took two sets of popcorn+ drink. One per movie. It was just enough sugar and liquid. Also, there were no advertisements before the children's movies! There were for ''Skyscraper'' with The Rock, but also only a couple. On the flip side, if you decide to go to the cinema in the capital the prices are double. For both, tickets and snacks.

Visit the Kino Rio page to check out their upcoming movies. Also, the cinema is modern, so yes, you will have a comfortable chair and a quality screen in front of you.

Ventspils is also an industrial city and that is the part that brings in money and raises some dissatisfaction. Alongside some ships that take you on a short cruise or bring you to Germany, there are also enormous tankers that come for the coal and oil. No, we do not mine it, but we are kind of a middleman that stores and distributes it further. I remember, many years back, there was a huge oil scare. I had the flu but my mom still packed me into the car and we went to another town. Everyone was leaving the city. There were traffic jams where none had ever been before(there are generally no traffic jams in Ventspils). And the town siren was blazing. In the end, nothing happened but I remember the whole ordeal vividly. What I do not remember is how the scare came to be. I think it was after a storm or something like that but I can not be sure.

Another thing to note is that a lot of houses are being rebuilt right now. With new people moving in, there are a lot of reconstruction-work or starting from scratch. This summer there have been two fires, too. With the hot weather, everything catches flame much easier and we have had some forest fires as well. But about the two city fires, those were old and abandoned wooden houses burning and now the rubble is being dealt with. Therefore the picture above.

One last thing to touch upon. Food, my favorite subject. Jūras Brīze(The Breeze of the Sea) is rumored to be the best place to eat at while you are in Ventspils and I can most definitely agree with that. It is constantly filled with people and buzzing. It has a swing set for the little ones and goodly food for affordable prices. On the top picture, you can see my and my brother's breakfast. We had two plates, a fresh natural grapefruit juice, and an ice cream cocktail(virgin, obviously) for 10 euros total. That is a steal for fresh things as many of us know that a natural juice can go way too high up in the price range. I am also eating a typical farmer's breakfast here and my brother is devouring some great thin pancakes. The wasps liked them, too :D

Also, do not forget to tip your waiter, that job is hard(can attest to that) and the service industry does not have the highest wages.

Here is a boy for scale

That is all the extra things I wanted to mention. The food here, in Ventspils, is great. We also have a farmers market every day where real butter, milk, self-grown vegetables and home-made bread can be bought. Oh, and the forest mushrooms, too! Those are the best! That is a great place to visit, too. Especially on the special market days that have double the amount of vendors selling.

Have the best day! Today, tomorrow, and forever.
Linda